Searching, Waiting and Finding

I was pretty lost after I left Sucre. For a week or so I wandered around not knowing where to go and what to do. I talked to the truck drivers along the way, tried to take a wild road which did not work, spend two nights in an army base in the middle of nowhere, got my passport stamped for a second time at the Argentinian boarder so I would have another three months in Bolivia and then I got an answer to an email and decided to visit friends in Santa Cruz. It was way off the trail I had to take to get to the South, but I wanted to see those friends again.

They would arrive some days later, so I took off to green hilly lands around Saimapata. I camped one night alone at the pretty waterfalls of Las Cuavas.

And near Bermejo I was suprised by the prettiest vista I've seen so far in Bolivia. Fernando joined me on this walk and together we got soaking wet in a sudden rainfall, when there is nowhere to hide you just wait ...... untill you get too cold and have to get up and get wetter and colder. It was all pretty funny.

Then we got to Santa Cruz where I made some new friends because the other once had not arrived yet. I did not like the atmosphere in Santa Cruz, was it not for Marie I would have skipped even that night on the town. Even though, I did learn some things and was presented with very special gifts from different artesanos.

So I took a ride to the churches of the Jesuit Missions.

First with camiones, but the road was too bad, so I took a train.

This is how you get on the train in the nothing-saying town I got stuck.

The Jesuits arrived in this area around 17oo and build impressive god-houses. Thier way of living, together with the native people that would work for/with them was a great example for the rude and destroying Spanish troops who would invate later. Although they pressed their religion onto others they too improved working and living conditions and lived in peace.

Their churches are definably very pretty. All smelling like wood and painted with pretty flowery and religious depictings.

I crossed paths with those two truckdrivers three times. Their trucks were loaded with wood and so went really slow. Still I took the ride three times with them, it was super cool to see them again and again. Really nice man and their Tinku help.

There were six towns along the road, I did it all by hitching, slept in my tent and swam in lakes with pirahnas (I still have all my toes). There was some rain and one part of the endlesly boring, pretty bad, always dirt, road was too slippery and muddy to pass for heavy truck (one of the times I spotted my truck drivers again), a few had even drifted off the road!

In town the streets turned into rivers after a half hour downpoor and it took me a while to get going because the sight of how every body got through the water was super fun.

Back in Santa Cruz, only for one quick night, my friends had still not arrived and waiting was no longer an option. It was almost easter (Pascua) and in Santa Cruz they make those pretty things from palmas. You take yours to the church where it gets blessed and then you put it in your house. Well, my backpack is my house, so that's where it got stuck. I blessed it myself with a big kiss.

A lot of hitch hiking in those weeks, great, free travel and lots of contact, but I also put on weight.

On to Tarija, the original route. Tarija is the wine capital of Bolivia. I had almost forgotten this when I arrived at the market my first day in town. At the top floor I was offered a wine with Maria and here male companions. It's the only market in Bolivia where alcohol is served. It was only 1pm, but time did not stand still for long. All of a sudden I was taken to another wine-backyard where we kept drinking absolutely delicious white wine mixed with soda untill it was dark. I was truly getting drunk, ole first day in Tarija.

One day more in Tarija and I left to discover the hills around. It was super cool to see such a huge field with flowers, it had been a long time. I picked a pretty bunch on the way back ....

... after I had discovered a heavenly green moss-covered forest with a beautiful river with swimmingholes. I really enjoyed this hike and struggle through the woods.

And then, a new chapter: San Lorenzo

People who follow me in my lifes path, one day you will read more about this town because I truly found the place where I would like to stay for a while. It's a small town, with a small market but still enough activity. It's only half an hour away from the biger city, the people are super friendly, there are no tourists, many mountains to go hiking, a mild climate, warm in the day, fresh in the evenings. I just really really liked my time here and could really feel that I wanted to come back and live with my new family.

I walked into the small market in the evening, looking for a last tea before I would build my tent somewhere. This family was serving their meal, nothing for sale only tojori. Sure why not. So I ate my maisdrink while listening to those members of one family but all very different.

The attention came eventually to me and I was fired with the normal questions, my photo's came out and suddenly I was part of those members.

Being done eating I asked where I could camp and eventually I was invited by Iris to sleep in her quarter.

Ana and Valeria, I, Iris and Lupe

Mami did not like photos.

This family is, like most, not totally normal. It's too much to explain the whole situation but the most interesting thing is that the six sisters and one brother all have different fathers who do not live anywhere near. Iris became my best friend, she's also 29 and has a 15 year old son, Yamil and nine year old daughter, Guadelupe. The dad lives in La Paz and is probably history. Her oldest sister is Valeria, 32. Her daughter Ana, 15 lives with her, her son with his dad and four years ago she has lost a four year old son while he was playing in the park during a visit to dad. Their youth is very sad, their lives very hard, their hands very strong.

I absolutely adored Iris because I fully trusted her, she felt so pure and honest, something you very seldom find in Latin America.

Iris has a little room she rents for her and her kids, Yamil sleeps in the bed, she and Lupe on the floor. That first morning the alarm went off at 5:30am. It's Pascua and so there was a procession up the hill with the 12 stages played by the coleages kids. I got the sleep out of my eyes and went along with Yamil. It's so impressive to see how devoted Latinos are with their love for Christ. More then 200 people walked the 2.5km to the hill, watched the theater played on the truck, sang prayers and bend for avery cross along the way.

The last part up the hill was very intens. They played the crusification of Jesus very realistic, Jesus moaned while carrying his cross, the romans yelled and whipped and the woman cried and tried to help their son.

At the top Jesus was nailed to the cross, said his last words and many (including me) were crying softly, a moment of silence fell down, no baby cried, no child spoke, no adult looked up.

The cross was worshipped and loaden with flowers, I put the flowers I had picked the day before down. Sometimes you don't know why everything fits. I bet the candels burned untill the end.And then I returned back to the market where I was stuffed with Sopapillas and Api and Doña Beatrix told me she was my Mami and Iris and Valeria my sisters. It's always difficult to think back how it all happened, it's so amazing to be named sister with full devotion and to be huged as if you will not leave anymore. I saw all of them cry once, Valeria when she told me about her son, Mami when I told her I had met Doña Leonor who had lost her 22-year old daughter only two months ago, she drowned in a swimminghole. Mami remebered the day well.Iris has a full day working, first helping Mami at the market, then to Tarija to clean hotel rooms, cleaning all the sheets by hand. Back home she has to wash more, maybe cook and pay attention to the kids. I tried to lighten her load by going to the marked for her. Starting the water for tea and coffee and the pan with api. Mami would arrive soon and start the oil to fry sopapillas. About 10$ is earned every morning this way, from 5:45 till 9am. I stayed 12 nights in San Lorenzo and helped Mami 7 times. Really wierd to get with the first woman at the market and open shop, you get to know all and this small town was greeting me by name very soon. I loved it.

Valeria worked the toilets. After selling all the sopapillas I would often sit with her and knit a few hours. I learned the Rice-point and the Pineapple-point, how to make an elastic edge and so finished my two first hats.

Mami and her daugthers making little balls of the daugh at night for the sopapillas in the morning. She really did not like photo's, so I'm lucky with this one. In the bed in our first house, cause while I was here Iris and the kids moved to another room in another house, way nicer, more calm and cheaper.

Iris, Lupe, I and Yamil.

Another good friend became one of Iris' tia (aunt) and her kids. It was a real party house for this week, with many wines and chichas flowing. This is her son Sergio, we did a lot together. Her youngest daughter, 4 years, was my sweetheart, there is a little more hope I would like kids, when they are like Laura.

It was Pascua, so the weekend was full with parties. Saturday the whole street was filled with little fires to heat milk and cinnamonwater which gets served with singani, a grape liquor. The singing, then violin playing and then dancing fills the whole night, untill the sunrise. The streets are decorated with bows with 'rosas de Pascua', all processions pass under and also 'El Disfile' where all the schools, policeman, ladies from the marked, and other towns people march for applaus.

One evening Sergio, his brother Rudy and I went to a concert, the music turned out to be very boring, Cumbia Chicha, but the times were good with all the dancing cholitas.
We went with half of Tia's kids to the river ....
.... and made beautiful mermaids from Yamil.
And then there was a 15th birthday. It's the age when girls reach adulthood. For boys it's 18. The party is huge (when the family has money and padrinos which are friends and family who all pay something). When you arrive you set yourself along the wall on low benches and soon a earthen bowl with chicha is given, the first calabas served. Everybody gets soup and a big plate with lots of grilled meat and potatoes which you eat with your fingers. It was a big party with maybe 70 or more people. Then the ceremony starts.
To represent her 15 years, 15 pairs of youngsters enter and at the end her and her dad. Then she dances the wals with him (very bad, he holds her wrist and she his waist), she gets flowers from all the boys and blows out the candels of the girls. It all takes quit some time and nobody laughs. Then she eats some cake and gets her head pushed in, photo's are made and a line of people will give their presents.

Then the big speakers hold music instead of a talking microphone and the dancing starts. It was a GREAT party, the white wine in jars and chicha in pots flowed, everyone danced in line, many different styles, we laughed, got half drunk and were very merry. Here I'm dancing Tinku-style with Rudy.
It was almost morning when we strugled out, it was a farm far away, no transport no nothing, so we walked for a long time untill I was too tired. We slept along the road untill light woke us up and a minibus was found. Only half a day were we back in San Lorenzo before we took the ride back and followed the rest of the party. The presents were blessed, more chicha served, another meal eaten and the bellies danced away.

Twelve nights, eleven days in San Lorenzo, seven times up at 5:30, seven times a party untill sunrise. A new family found, Iris and I cried big drops when we said goodbyes. 'It hurts here' she said, pointing to her heart.

And while Sergio askes you: 'Te sive' ('may I serve you' a calabas with chicha), you will say 'Gracias. Salud a ti.' ('yes thank you, cheers to you'). He will drink his portion and scoop another one out of the bucket for you. Iris is watching and so we have a new family to which I one day will return. Les extraño mucho amigos!

I was lost, I searched, I waited and I found.